


In Hot Pursuit

by JaKedeSnaKe



Series: Life in the Perseus Arm [6]
Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Breastfeeding, Cute, F/F, Family Fluff, Future Fic, Gem Egg Hell, Gemlings, OC, cursing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-11
Updated: 2019-09-11
Packaged: 2020-10-14 09:28:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,075
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20598506
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JaKedeSnaKe/pseuds/JaKedeSnaKe
Summary: The lapis lazuli and peridot couple feed their gemlings, unaware of events conspiring against them.





	In Hot Pursuit

**Author's Note:**

> Part three of my lapis lazuli/peridot egg hell fic

The olive green gem laid on her side, with a loving yet pained smile on her lips. Her babies were restless that rainy night, the family back in their den. They were adamant against falling asleep, and repeatedly squeaked for their green mother’s attention, kneaded on their blue mom’s chest, and squirmed impatiently in their den’s nest. That meant it was feeding time.

The peridot gemling with light blue stripes - dubbed Raylee - was busy with one of her mother’s breasts. She suckled lightly, in an almost dignified manner, her hands gripping lightly on her mother’s breast. The same situation cannot be said for the other breast. On the other one was the lapis gemling with almost triangular hair, who was named Mari. She squirmed as she tried to grab every last drop of the mineral-rich water her mother secreted, her closed eyes scrunching with effort, going so far as to claw at her teat to obtain a better grip. The peridot winced in slight pain, her cub’s needle-like teeth and claws still sharp although underdeveloped. The discomfort grew until the baby’s sire had to pry little Mari off her carrier, who squealed in anger.

The four other mewing babies clamored around the peridot, each eager to get their fill of the milk-like fluid. The lapis runt - Squirt - was there too, somehow mewing louder than the others in spite of her minuscule size. Initially she was cuddling right next to her green mom, sleeping until being awoken by her hungry sisters. Not quite understanding the commotion, she nevertheless desired to imitate her sisters and joined them in a cacophony of high-pitched mews. Her sisters, being larger and more determined, quickly shoved Squirt out of the way. Now relegated to the periphery of the gemling pile, Squirt turned towards her blue mom’s scent. 

She slowly made her way to her other mother, by means of army-crawling across the nest since she was still too weak to lift up her head and upper body. Squirt’s mother meanwhile laid on her stomach, staring tiredly at her mate after being stirred awake by her babies’ calls. Between her teeth was the Mari, her stubby arms still trying to grab at her mother’s teat.

“Ree! Ree!” The blue mother heard. She looked down and noticed her youngest pup making her way towards her, using all of her might. Taking pity on the runt, the mother set the whining gemling between her teeth down and picked up Squirt by the scruff of its neck. She then laid the tiny baby right next to her head. The little one resumed chirping, rubbing up against her mom’s head. Her mother realized what that meant: she wanted HER to feed her.

The lapis looked at her baby with conflicted emotions. Usually only the carriers breastfed their gemlings, while the sire collected tougher foodstuffs for them when they were older. But as she looked at her mate, eyes bagged and milk reserves running dry, she decided she’d give it a chance.

She turned on her side, carefully trying to imitate her mate. Her baby sensed her change in position and realized she got her wish, and eagerly squirmed her way over to her blue mom’s breast. Little Squirt began suckling eagerly, excited over finally getting some milk. Her mother, still not entirely used to the whole breastfeeding thing, urged her to take it easy. Her request fell on flat ears however, and the little lapis runt showed no sign of slowing down. “This is fine,” the adult lapis decided mentally, “I have to get used to this sometime if I want to help my mate. Plus, I have plenty of reserves stored up.”

Mari, placed aside by her mom, realized that her sister was being fed and she wasn’t. She began angrily peeping and crawled her way to her mother’s other breast. Mari tried to grab hold of the breast, but her mother nudged her away with her hand. Undeterred, she crawled back peeping louder than before.  
Mari’s three sisters, not including Raylee being breastfed, heard the calls of annoyance from their sister. Realizing that their other mother was offering milk, they used all of their might and wriggled their tiny bodies over to their blue mom. 

The tables had turned: now it was the lapis that was surrounded by hungry gemlings, not the peridot. The blue gem looked from her newly gathered litter to her mate with an overwhelmed expression. The peridot only gave a loving smirk in return, one that read “now you know how it feels, babe,” and resumed cooing at Raylee.

“This isn’t easy,” the lapis concluded on a sobering thought.

Outside it was storming. The storm kept dumping down rain in watery sheets, refusing to yield its strength. Yet the gems didn’t mind, after being driven to their den from their tree nest by the rain. They relaxed in their den, blissfully unaware of surrounding events. For the rain had bothered some.

“Ugh, why won’t it stop fucking raining?” Mitch complained, as he and Aaron marched through the thundering rain.

Aaron looked back at Mitch, who was lagging behind due to being bogged down with nets and cages. “Storms on these types of planets last a helluva long time Mitch. Best get used to it.”

He turned away and continued trudging forward, a shiny cobalt-colored shotgun gripped in his hands.

“Besides,” Aaron hushed his voice, “if you keep complainin’ ya gonna make ya self look weak in, her, eyes,” Aaron reminded, unsure of the “her” part.

Mitch peeked in front of Aaron and had to restrain himself from leaping back. He practically forgot. Her body frame was so gracile and her movement so quiet that he forgot she was walking in front of them.

In front of Aaron was another hominid. Like the two human men the being walked upright. Except there was something different about her. For one thing her skin was green, and she possessed an oval-shaped gemstone on her left bicep. Her dress resembled that of an evening gown, with large, forest green shoulder pads. Her long hair was tied into a messy bun by a pale green ribbon. The gem asked the two to call her “Emerald Pearl.”

She walked in front of Aaron, hands clasped in graceful dignity. She, like Mitch, signed up with Aaron to work on this job, but joined up with them only that morning citing “complications with travel.” Aaron wanted nothing more than to yell his head off at her for her tardiness, but she intimidated him despite her slender build.

“We are halfway towards the den site,” Emerald Pearl stated in an orderly, unenthusiastic manner. Aaron and Mitch fell silent. It was a moment before Aaron began to speak.

“Alright, after Em’rald Pearl does her thing, whas’ the first thin’ we do when we approach them gems?” Aaron demanded in his heavy Southern accent.

Mitch let out a bored, rehearsed reply. “*Sigh*, toss the nets over the parent gems.”

“And then?”

“Use tasers on them until they retreat into their bubble.”

“What happens if we don’t git the nets over ‘em in time?” 

“Use our shotguns on them, but ONLY as a last resort,” Mitch stated, being sure to say the last part louder.

“Good. Now what happens after that?”

Mitch hesitated for a moment before delivering a reproachful answer. “Grab the gemlings, throw them in the cages, and get the hell out of there.”

Aaron noticed Mitch’s hesitation. “What, you ain’t havin’ second thoughts now, are ya? Don’t forget ya signed up for this!” Aaron declared.

“I know, it-it’s just, doesn’t this all seem really cruel? N-now I’m not saying I wanna back out of this job or anything like that, but this all seems really fucked, doesn’t it?”

“Look, I know this is a tough job,” Aaron interrupted, “but think of all the joy our bounty will bring to some - “

Emerald halted abruptly, causing Mitch and Aaron to do the same. For a moment the three stood together in the pouring rain, with Mitch and Aaron staring awkwardly at Emerald Pearl’s figure. 

“Are, are you really just that . . . content, with this? Doing this to my kind?” Emerald Pearl sternly questioned while slightly turning her head, revealing a face contorted with disgust.

Mitch spoke up. “No, no, he-he probably didn’t mean it like that, not at - “

“I have known humans like Aaron for many years, Mitch. I assure you that he meant what he said,” Emerald Pearl said bitterly. “*Sigh*, let me tell you both something,” she announced, and began to walk again.

“You both are aware of how 218 years ago the one known as Steven Universe liberated us from the Diamond’s tyranny. Pearls like me were free to make something of ourselves. That is, until Steven - savior of gemkind - died of old age. The Diamonds, having lost their Pink again - and their one source of redemption - relapsed to the old habits they have inherited for millennia. The caste system was reestablished, corporal punishments for minor offenses were brought back, and freed gems were ordered to return to servitude.

“Lower caste members such as myself were forced to return to an eternity of serving some master. Many years later, in what you call 2207, there were whispers about a supposed first formal contact between the Diamonds and humanity. Many gems hadn’t forgotten the brief era of liberty we once experienced when Steven lived. They said that those humans were blessed with the now banned ideas of social mobility, freedom, and equality. Gems like me seized our chance. We fled to your Earth, your colonies, your space stations seeking the privileges you had.”

Emerald Pearl looked down at her clasped hands, which clenched with spite. “What fools we were.”

“Turns out humans don’t like living alongside creatures that have the same power as them. Sure, we were refugees, but most associated us with the despotic, gargantuan Diamond Authority. We started our new lives with you humans as poor, hated, and uneducated, having to learn foreign concepts such as ‘money based economies,’ and ‘property rights.’ I still don’t even fully comprehend what a ‘property rights’ is! Well, that isn’t to say that we went completely unappreciated, however.

“Us Era 2 gems eventually found out the existence of the feral gems in the Perseus Arm. We later found out how your concept of ‘cuteness’ allowed for a highly lucrative pet trade of them,” she stated scaldingly. “I have heard it before - gemlings are ‘soooo much better than dogs and cats!’” she imitated mockingly. 

“I get it, I get it, they live longer than cats and dogs, you don’t have to clean up any excrement, you rarely have to feed them, and - most importantly - they have the physical cuteness of human infants while possessing the playful personalities of kittens. Sure, that excuses you nabbing them from their parents and selling them.

“Gems like me, driven desperate by being in such alien conditions like poverty and homelessness, resorted to even joining the gemling trade. We - at least I, thought that we could lend our knowledge on gemkind to human poachers. Despite not behaving like feral gems, we can voluntarily express certain feral instincts that have been suppressed for eons. At least then I could act as a guide and inform poachers on how to properly handle feral gems and their gemlings.”

Emerald Pearl fully turned her upper body towards the two humans. “I don’t like doing this, Aaron and Mitch. The ‘money’ I earn, know matter how much, was still garnered through a dastardly deed. While I am not speaking for all gems when I say this, I’m only in this trade for the sake of the unfortunate gems and their broods caught up in the crosshairs of human interests. Only gems know how to convince a feral gem to let down its guard and come out of their nest. Only gems know how to soothe a gemling that was just stolen from its parents. Only we know how to behave around feral gems.”

She stopped her speech. The only sounds left were the rain’s downfall, Emerald Pearl’s inner brooding, and Mitch and Aaron’s minds trying to take in what she said.

Mitch meekly looked down at his watch which displayed a map. Seeing something to change the subject, he excitedly cleared his throat. “Hey, I think we’re almost at the den,” he proclaimed. 

“Good,” Emerald Pearl responded. “I want to get this finished.”


End file.
